For Robert Huss, head of security for Seattle Central, Thursday’s “dirty bomb” exercise — complete with a fake-looking blown-off plastic arm — atop the school’s science and math building was an opportunity to test out the safety procedures for the campus he is responsible for. For the specialists of the Washington National Guard Civilian Support Team 10, a day of drills hunting for small radioactive capsules provided the opportunity to put their skills to the test in a busy city environment in the heart of Capitol Hill.

While it was annoying for the big media flyovers it encouraged, the drills involving the school, the Guard, State Patrol and SPD have been relatively regular occurrences on Seattle’s community college campuses including SCCC, Huss said. Previous SCCC drills have been held at night. The timing of Thursday’s exercise, Huss told CHS, had nothing to do with the approaching ten-year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. And Huss said to expect more drills of a similar nature in the future.

“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired (every training for a manufactured fear like dirty bombs) signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.” -Dwight Eisenhower